


Masquerade at the End of Time

by Lazy_Lyn



Category: FF 13, Final Fantasy XIII
Genre: Costume Parties & Masquerades, Dancing, F/M, One Shot, Seduction
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2020-05-04
Updated: 2020-05-04
Packaged: 2021-03-01 23:54:23
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings
Chapters: 1
Words: 2,235
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/23995594
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Lazy_Lyn/pseuds/Lazy_Lyn
Summary: Lightning infiltrates the feast hall yet again in order to try to save Snow's soul. This time, however, someone familiar interferes.
Kudos: 7





	Masquerade at the End of Time

Returning to the Ark, the wash of blindingly pristine whiteness had a glaringly obvious blemish that immediately drew Lightning’s attention. The monstrosity was a frilly dress dyed a deep shade of crimson, draped elegantly on a rack. She didn’t have to ask to know why the dress was there and what purpose it was going to serve. That didn’t mean she had to like it.

“You have got to be kidding me,” Lightning said, turning to face off with the Ark’s one and only operator, Hope Estheim, who turned to her with an apologetic smile.

“I’m sorry, Light, it was the best I could find. You didn’t think you could attend the feast wearing your usual uniform, did you?”

“As a matter of fact, yes.”

“Of course you did. Why am I not surprised?” Hope shook his head with a small smile gracing his features. Honestly, he knew Lightning was going to look absolutely stunning in the red dress. A dress that would truly shine on stage. Of course, she looked amazing in anything she wore but he was particularly looking forward to seeing her in a dress for the first time. He didn’t dwell on that train of thought for long though, there was a more pressing matter at hand that required his attention. “Do you think you will be able to save him? To save Snow?”

Lightning remembered the first time she entered the feast hall several days ago, Snow’s palace of nightly thrills and celebrations. He hadn’t wanted to be saved and at the time she believed she couldn’t save those who didn’t want it. But now? For her sister’s sake… and maybe, just maybe, for her own sake as well… she Had to save Snow. If she didn’t make it through this, there just had to be something, someone, for her sister to return home to in the new world.

“I have to,” was all she replied.

***

“Next time, you’re wearing the dress,” Lightning said into her earpiece as she headed towards the grand gold palace. She felt exposed somehow, more vulnerable in a dress. Not to mention it was painful and challenging to walk in heels. The amused chuckle she heard in her ear fueled her irritation momentarily but she quickly pushed the emotion aside. It is what it is, after all. The sooner she got into the palace, the sooner this would be over and she could get out of this dress. And then burn it.

“But I wouldn’t look as good,” Hope teased in reply before things went quiet on his end.

Walking past the iron gates and over to a grand staircase, Lightning came to a pause as she gazed up towards the massive entrance to the feast hall. A light breeze swirled by and played with a few strands of her rose-colored hair. 

'People are supposed to change. Not changing after hundreds of years is unnatural. But Snow… I didn’t want to believe his change. The man who had believed in the future with unwavering optimism. The man who feared no pain to protect those he cared about. Snow, tell me… Could even you have given in to despair. I need to know what you went through. What happened when I wasn’t there? Wait for me.’ Trying not to trip, she walked up the stairs and was admitted into the palace.

Just like the last time, colored lights swept over shiny tiled floor and golden arches and pillars. The room was lit by a massive chandelier hanging from a checkered dome roof. Palace guards in full metal armor milled around among waitresses in cat ears and a myriad of patrons dancing and spinning around the floor in fancy clothes and faces concealed behind masks. And just like last time, she couldn’t get past the disbelief of stripper poles on raised platforms decorated with more lights. Past it all, the “Lord of the Feast-hall”, Snow Villiers, perched hunched over on an elegant throne up on the second floor. He quietly observed it all in a detached manner with his chin resting on clasped hands. He was like a dark void dressed all in black, shadows dancing over his features as fireworks occasionally went off behind him, visible through the windowless arches.

As a beautifully haunting melody, both sweet and sorrowful, thrummed through the room and the lights dimmed to just what shone from the chandelier above, Lightning wove her way through swaying crowds of masked faces. She ignored everything surrounding her, her one single-minded goal being that she makes it to Snow. Nothing else mattered. 

She made it to the center of the dance floor before something wrapped around her wrist and she was quickly spun into strong arms. With a soft gasp of surprise, aqua eyes flicked up to meet shaded purple ones peering back at her from slits in a black half-mask. They were familiar…. and altogether mesmerizing. Yet, a sense of unease trickled down her spine at the slight smug smirk lifting one side of the man’s lips. A firm pressure made itself known at the base of her spine and the other hand held one of her own as he led her into a gentle glide, smoothly beginning a circling waltz around the dance floor. Without even looking away from her, he expertly navigated them around everyone else.

Lightning vaguely registered some couples stopping and staring, this man commanded a certain presence about him, drawing attention with his almost regal gracefulness and flawless movements. She should tear away from this man with his darkly glinting gaze and his naggingly familiar purple hair that floated about his face as they circled around. She needed to push him away, put a stop to this nonsense and continue on her way to save Snow. That was what mattered… yet she didn’t break away. She realized with a start- the hand that was not being held was resting on the man’s chest. When had that happened? Just as she was getting ready to demand who he was, the stranger spoke.

“So we meet again, Warrior Goddess,” the deep rumble whispered out close to her ear and black tendrils of wispy shadows momentarily curled around their clasped hands before dissipating.

“Caius,” Lightning replied in disbelief. Now she did struggle, trying to yank her hand out of his strong grip but it was a futile struggle. He wouldn’t let her go. She glared up at him, ready for a fight. “What do you want?” she demanded.

“You are here to save Snow’s soul, are you not?” He glanced towards the throne and Lightning followed his stare. 

Snow still sat hunched over, as if the weight of the world was baring down on his shoulders and he could no longer hold that weight up. He was still oblivious she had returned to his feast hall again to try and save him… unaware of the chaos she was circling around his dance-floor with.

“Maybe.” Lightning said vaguely, moving the hand that was resting on his chest to rest on his bicep instead. Anything to make it less intimate between them. “What of it?”

“He doesn’t want to be saved any more than I do, Savior, and time is rapidly ticking toward the final countdown,” Caius gazed over her features in silent contemplation. “I recall you saying you can not save those who don’t wish to be saved. You have failed again and again to cleave the darkness from our souls. If not by force, what are you planning this time?”

“Why do you even care what happens to Snow? I thought the only one you cared about was Yeul,” Lightning questioned, confused about why Caius was even here and wondering why he was getting in her way. Observing his eyes so closely, she could have sworn she saw a flicker of anger. But it was gone too quickly to clearly decipher. She’d never met anyone as hard to read as this man before her now.

“Yeul seems to have taken a liking to him.” The words were a bit strained, as if he had to force them out of his throat with a wrench.

Lightning felt momentary shock chill her veins before the embers of defiant rage warmed them right back up. “So she wants him to remain behind in the chaos with you and herself.” Reflexively her fingers tightly clenched, bunching up the fabric at his bicep where her hand rested, and she pegged him with a fierce stare of determination. “She can’t have him. He belongs to Serah.”

The hand resting on her spine snaked around so it was more an arm that wrapped around her waist to hold her in place. Once he had her firmly secured, Caius let go of her hand so he could briefly stroke her cheek, tucking a strand of hair behind her ear. Why was he being so touchy-feely? It wasn’t like him and it put her even more on edge.

“Just Serah?” Caius asked with an infuriating raise of a brow and a small smirk spreading across his features. “Are you so sure about that?”

“What the hell are you implying, Caius,” Lightning snapped, trying to push away again now that she had both hands free but the arm around her waist was like a steel bar keeping her in place against his swaying body. Despite her struggling, he still kept them gliding in a flawless rhythm to the music.

“I am not implying anything. I’m merely stating that the desperation you display to save him is like a woman in love,” Caius casually replied.

“Ridiculous.”

“Is it?” 

“Yes!”

As if in tandem to their rising conflict, the music emanating around them slowly began a crescendo and they circled around the room faster. Both hands came down to rest on her hips and he hoisted her up and spun her around as her hands gripped his shoulders to balance herself upright. Lightning glared down at the cocky bastard with his snake tongue spewing lies.

“Don’t lie to your heart, hunter of souls,” Caius warned as he lowered her back to the floor.

“I’m not, Caius,” Lightning argued as she was perfectly maneuvered like a puppet to his dancing whims. She was helpless to stop it as he grabbed her hand and guided her into a perfect spin under his arm a couple times. She was beginning to feel dizzy. “I’m not,” she insisted still.

As the last beat of the song resonated out in a powerful surge, Lightning felt herself being pulled up against his body after the last twirl. A hand supported her at the base of her spine again, the other hand slid up to support the nape of her neck, as he dipped her back at an almost painful angle, twisted back so far her feet barely stayed on the ground. Talk about whiplash. She felt breathless and dizzy and confused as she clutched desperately at Caius’s arms and stared up at him while her chest rapidly rose and fell.

Those damn mesmerizing eyes were paralyzing her again. Like gazing into a storm, the calm before the chaos. Lightning could do nothing but stare as his face inched closer and closer to her own. If he was going to kiss her… she was going to let him. She told herself it was just to prove she didn’t have any feelings for Snow. He was her sister’s fiance for crying out loud.

Her breath caught in her throat as Caius’ lips hovered just over her own. But then his dark gaze flicked up past her face momentarily before he smirked and looked back down into her blue eyes. He was so close to closing that last spec of distance that his lips brushed against hers as he spoke two words that stopped her heart. “Snow’s watching.”

Reflex. That’s what it had to be. But as soon as those words were voiced aloud, Lightning jerked her head back even further to avoid the kiss, that may or may not would have actually happened, to look towards the throne. Her eyes briefly met Snow’s own blue gaze. He was indeed watching them. Was that a frown on his features she saw? He was too cloaked in shadows, too far away, to tell for sure. Plus, in the next second she was hauled back into an upright position on her feet. Her heart was pounding far too hard in her chest. She glared at the sneaky bastard.

“Thought so,” Caius murmured with a satisfied chuckle. Taking a step back, he actually gave her a deep bow from the waist, like a proper gentleman after a classic dance like the waltz. “Thank you for the dance, Savior.”

With that, black tendrils consumed his being and he disappeared in a black void that quickly disintegrated as if it had never been in the first place. 

'Damn you, Caius.’ Lightning briefly closed her eyes, composing herself- steeling herself for who she must face now and taking a moment to chain her emotions away behind a door with a hundred locks to keep it sealed away for good. True or not, Snow was someone she could never have. Was someone she would never even try to take in the first place. For he was not hers. He is and always will be… Serah’s. 

The only thing she is going to do? She is going to save Snow.


End file.
